SPACE GLOSSARY

Rocks that float around in space. Sizes range from that of a van to hundreds of miles long.

Gases held in place, by gravity, around planets. Can also refer to gases around stars.

Basic buildings blocks of all matter. They are made up of electrons, protons and neutrons. The simplest atom has is the hydrogen atom, made of one electron and one proton.

Also called the southern lights,  these are bands of light and bright glows that appear in the night sky near the South Pole.

Also called the northern lights, they are the same as Aurora australis but appear near the North Pole.

A part of space that light and matter cannot escape from.

Icy rocks that travel through space, whose gas and dust may form tails when passing close to a sun.

A cluster of stars, they are usually named after a person, object or animal. Clusters form certain shapes based on where in space you view them from.

Outer atmosphere of a star.

The universe as a whole.

A large dent in the ground, shaped like a bowl. These can be caused by a meteor strike or explosion.

These are round objects that orbit the sun but are not large enough to clear a path around a sun the way planets can. They are moon-sized, and Pluto is the better-known of the dwarf planets.

A weather condition that can sometimes occur in the Pacific Ocean. Its size means it can affect weather all over the globe.

The term for the different types of light and energy that is in the universe – radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma rays.

The circle around a celestial body that is an equal distance to both poles.

A planet with no orbit, or one that orbits a star not a part of our solar system.

A collection of many thousands, even billions of stars that are kept together by gravity. Our galaxy is the Milky Way.

Also called gamma radiation, these are a part of the electromagnetic spectrum and hold a lot of energy. They come from exploding stars and solar flares.

A collection of atoms that move loosely around each other.

The Global Positioning System uses satellites, ground stations and receivers to tell you where on Earth you are.

A force that works to pull matter together

These are gases (methane, carbon dioxide, vapour etc.) in the atmosphere that trap heat from the sun.

A part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is invisible to the eye, but we feel as heat. It is called infrared because its waves are a little longer than red light waves that we can see.

A ring of frozen objects beyond Neptune’s orbit. Pluto is one of these objects.

The opposite of El Niño. This is weather caused by uncharacteristically cold temperatures on the surface of the sea.

This is the distance that light can travel in one year. It is the same as  5,878,499,810,000 miles.

This is the area around a magnet where the magnetic pull, or push, is active. Our Earth has one and it extends into space and helps protect us from space weather. 

This is how much matter something is made up of.

This is what everything in the universe is made up of. Including you.

A meteor is the streak of light you can see when a meteorite enters the atmosphere and starts to burn up.

A meteoroid that strikes the surface of a planet

A chunk of space rock smaller than a van. Chunks of rock bigger than this are called asteroids.

A part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwaves are made by stars, supernovae and the gas between stars. Cosmic microwave background radiation is all over the cosmos, and it is studied by scientists that want to learn how the universe started.

This is the smallest unit of a substance that is still able to behave like the main substance. A molecule is capable of being a group of atoms or a single atom. A common substance is water and a molecule of water can act like a glass full of water.

A moon is a natural object that moves around a larger natural object. They are usually called satellites by scientists, or natural satellites.

A cloud of gas or dust that can be found between stars.

This is a highly dense star that is mostly made up of neutrons. They have a strong gravitational pull, this is due to them having the whole mass of a star in a small space.

A kind of shell around our solar system that is thought to contain over a trillion frozen bodies. Long-period comets come from this cloud. 

An orbit is a curved path followed by a satellite, planet or spacecraft as it goes around another object.

Part of Earth’s atmosphere that soaks up a lot of the sun’s harmful radiation.

A very small amount or piece of something.

Planets are large bodies in space that circle a sun or star.

This is an object that is thought to be a very quickly turning neutron star. They release short pulses of radio waves.

These are found in the centre of large galaxies, around a supermassive black hole. Among the brightest objects in the cosmos, they can be observed across the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

Energy or particles released explosions, chemical reactions and radioactive material.

A part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio waves can be found on Earth and in space. We use them to listen to the radio, to talk to satellites and they are common in space because they are emitted by stars, colliding galaxies, pulsars etc.

This is how we describe some atoms that are not stable. They release a lot of energy when they change into different types of Atom.

An object that is in the orbit of another object. Moons are satellites. Man-made objects that orbit moons, asteroids, planets etc. are also satellites.

A burst of energy that emanates from the sun – releasing magnetic storms, gases and radiation waves.

This is a material that can capture sunlight and convert it into electricity.

A collection of celestial bodies that orbit a star – this includes moons, planets, asteroids and other objects.

A persistent stream of energy and associated particles emanating from the sun

Conditions in space that can affect space travel, Earth and satellites. This weather is usually the product of solar storms and solar winds.

A vehicle primarily used by people to travel in space.

Nothing in the universe travels faster than light, it travels at a speed of 186,282 miles per second.

A ball of gas, comprised mostly of helium and hydrogen it is held together by its own gravity. The process of hydrogen transforming into helium is what creates the energy that makes stars shine.

This is the star that sits in the centre of our solar system.

The descriptive word we use for objects that have a million times, or sometimes, even more, mass than our sun.

The explosion at the death of a star, can be as bright as an entire galaxy.

Large movements of the planet's crust. Tectonic movements create deep-sea trenches, mountain ranges, earthquakes volcanoes. They can also be responsible for devastating tsunami waves that can cross whole oceans.

A part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is named ultraviolet because its waves are shorter than ultraviolet light. We cannot see this light with the naked eye but some insects and birds can. Ultraviolet light from our sun can cause sunburn.

The universe is all of space, time and everything within it.

Space that contains no matter at all.

An opening in the Earth’s crust that can look like a mountain or hill. Rock, lava and/or gas erupts from these from deep within the Earth or other planet/moon.

This is the part of the Electromagnetic spectrum that we can see with the naked eye. Visible light contains all the colours of the rainbow.

Energy moves from one place to another in waves. 

This is a type of radiation that has lots of energy that is created by stars, neutron stars, really hot gases and the gas around black holes. Because X-Rays have lots of energy, they can move through solid material.